Bachmann aides bail out

Michele Bachmann is losing two key staffers from her political organization — the latest in a long line of aides who have departed, POLITICO has learned.

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Spokesman Sergio Gor and district director Julie Quist have both informed the congresswoman that they are leaving her office.

Neither is departing with ill will toward Bachmann, who is considering a run for the White House in 2012.

Quist is retiring from her post and said she’ll miss working for the congresswoman.

Gor also had nothing but praise for the congresswoman. “I have enjoyed working for Congresswoman Bachmann tremendously and have nothing but praise and admiration for her,” he said.

But even without any fireworks, the two exits add to a long a long line of recently departed Bachmann aides, as her office has had an extremely high turnover rate since the Minnesota Republican was first elected to Congress in 2006.

Bachmann has had four chiefs of staff leave since coming to Congress — Rich Dunn, Ron Carey, Michelle Marston and Brooks Kochvar. The Minnesota firebrand also had her campaign finance director Zandra Wolcott leave during the middle of her reelection campaign last year.

That high turnover rate stands as a major red flag if she indeed wants to run for president. Much of the infrastructure that quickly built her brand is no longer in her orbit.

Had he stayed, Gor most likely would be her chief point of contact with a media following her campaign. Wolcott, meanwhile, helped build the fundraising network that yielded more than $10 million for Bachmann’s uncompetitive reelection campaign last year.

And Marston was instrumental in creating the Bachmann brand and making the congresswoman a constant fixture on cable television.

“There are a lot of people who are good, smart, well-meaning, well-intentioned members of Congress, but they speak to the people like they are members of Congress. Rep. Bachmann talks to people like they are people,” Marston told POLITICO in 2009 while working for the congresswoman. “You either love Michele Bachmann or you don’t love Michele Bachmann at all.”